The new North-west. [volume] (Deer Lodge, Mont.) 1869-1897, 1887-05-20
HUDSON'S BAY NATIVES.
CHARACTERISTICS OF THE MIXED
RACES IN TIE NORTHWEST.
A People Who Get On in the World
Without the Use of Money-Some
Peculiarities In Funeral Customs and
Second Marriages. A9
Especial correspondence.l

Especial Correspondence
OTTAWA, Ont, May7
Those who have never seen life as it exists
among the inhabitants of the Hudson's Bay
country would be astonslied at the extent of
civilization found among n class of people
generally supposed to be savages, as well as at
the awful grandeur of the scenery and forIid-
ding aspect of the graveyard coasts along tie
shores of that northern sea. In all the urrin-
habitable region of North America there is
nowhere to be found more bleak, aesolate
or dreary waste than that between Ungava
bay, off the coast of Labrador OH the east,
and Fort Churchill on the west and southern
part of Hudson Bay proper. Although little
Is known yet regarding this weird and frozen
region, it has had q growth within the last
half century which has been something phe-
nomenal, and having been measured accord
ing to its needs by the God of Nature has
gone on advancing from age to age. until at
the present time not alone the more fertile
islands but the extent of land back from the
coast on either side is thickly populated by
people who hunt and fish and breed and talk
and chatter even among the misery and desti-
tuition which life in a region of per-
petual frost and snow must bring. Hud-
sons bay itself is really an inland sea,
extending between latitude ST deg.
and "a deg north and longitude n deg. and
81 deg west, and while about 1,000 miles long
asits greatest distance, is only about 600 miles
Ill breadth, covering an area of over SOC, 600
square miles, 1t is navigable only for about
shree months in the year--from the middle of
June to the middle of September-and for the
remainder of the year is filled with drift ice,
which renders navigation, even for short
distance, an absolute impossibility. The
eastern coasts of the bay are sights to be ad-
mired, cliffs rising in many cases to height
of from 200 to 400 feet abruptly from the
waters edge and being composed of a glacier
like substance which, being ever coated with
ice and frozen snow, shine in the sunlight un-
til it is almost impossible to look at them for
any length of time. The residents of this
section are not properly Esquimeux, but a
cross between this race and the French and
Indians, who have come in for the purpose of
hunting and fishing and finally settled down
among the natives to live as they do and share
with them in the privations which no other
life affords On an average, in the summer
months, the thermometer stands at about 45
degrees above, while the temperature in the
winter runs as low as 60 degrees below zero
and will average about 25 degrees below.
Fish are scarce and can be caught only
in the rivers. of which on the east there is
only the Great Whale, while on the west
there is the Hayes, Nelson, Churchill. Moore,
Albany, Weeksisk, Main and AbbitIbbe.
Seal abound i'll plenty, but are extremely shy
and hard for the natives to get at, while por-
poise and walrus are equally difficult to get
hold of. Were it not for the small fur bear
ing animals which are about the shores the
poor halft,rees would stand very good
chance of perisIling by hunger, as they can
expect nothing in the way of favors from the
Hudson Bay company's stores, a few of which
are along tho ennet. The nrtives live i'm !.
Villages compose. of from fifty to hundred
rude huts. Each community has its place OF
worship and its church burial ground, which
is consecrated by the Moravian missionaries.
few of whom are to be found wandering
about from village to village, from the east
ern extent of the settlements down as far as
Fort Churchill ON the west These faithfnl.
devoted men expect no reconilense for their
services, and if they did they wouldn't get it,
for there is not in all the country such a
thing as money, the only exchange being in
fish, oil or furs. Whenever one of a tribe
dies the rest of his family-meaniug by that
the entire settlenient-stop work for the
day and prepare to bury him. II the
settlement possesses such thing as dinner
bell, and the most of them do, the Oldest man
in the village goes about from hut to hut and
rings the bell i'll front of EACH until the occu-
pants come out, both big and little and falling
into line, march after him, When the circuit
has been made and big and little are all coli
lected, a march is made for the kirote as it
Is called, the village church, wli b consists of
8 81.
wall of stones near the middle of the com
munity. Into this little field go the entire
populace, and after chanting the virtues of
the dead for some hours, the corpse is taken
away on skin rock and covered with ice and
snow in the common burial plot. The rest of
the day is spent i'll rejoicing. and the next day,
IL the deceased was married, his better half
makes another choice, and ut the end of "A
week, if agreement be come to, tlle dead is
forgotten and the no longer sorrowing ones
begin life over again. G. E. GEORGE